TODI Belgium

Ever dreamed of being surrounded by thousands of fish? A few times a year, at TODI, our members dive and snorkel in a big 6.5 million liter tank, surrounded by over 5.000 fish. An old coal depot, which closed in the late 1980s, redeveloped into a €9 million fish tank.

A story about the trip to TODI, Belgium

The day started with an early cold morning, packing the cars with dive and snorkel gear. Grabbing a warm cup of coffee for on the road. Driving around Wageningen to pick up all the members for a road trip to Belgium. After driving for 1.5 hours, the roads started to turn white with snow, and, of course, we had to stop for a little snowball fight. After 2.5 hours of driving, we reached our destination, TODI.

After getting changed, we went up to the top of the basin, and we got overwhelmed by the huge size of the basin. 35 meters in diameter, 10 meters deep, and roughly 6.5 million litres of water. While walking around the basin to gather our dive and snorkel gear, you already see some fish swimming around and some divers underwater. We all got ready to dive and snorkel. And then… the moment was there! We were ready to jump in the water and explore the peaceful world of freshwater fish.

Imagine, you’re floating on the surface and hear all the snorkelers talking full of excitement about all the fish they see. You look at your buddy and sign to start the descent. You deflate your BCD and descent slowly. As soon as you are underwater, it becomes quiet and peaceful, the only thing you hear are bubbles (and some excited mumbling screams). You clear your ears and start looking around. The first thing you see is fish everywhere in crystal clear water! You get the feeling that time is standing still. After you realize that you’re not in a fishy dream, you see the aquascaped wonderland. The cars, platforms, and even caves. You also see through the windows on the side, kids watching you and waving full of excitement with big smiles on their faces.

After you processed everything, you start swimming around and enjoy the peaceful underwater world. You look left, right, up, and down, and you see different species everywhere. While watching this one pufferfish swimming a few meters in front of you, your buddy is getting surrounded by a group of big fish. Slowly you pass the cars, and underwater gardens, and head towards the cave to swim through it. However, the entrance is blocked by a school of fish that had the same thought as you. You hang still for a minute and just watch the fish ignoring your personal space and slowly swimming away. After they leave, you swim through the cave and while you see many fish passing by the other side of the cave, you notice fish hanging on the walls. It doesn’t matter where you look, you see fish just minding their own business.

After swimming through the caves, you notice that you’re already underwater for 45 minutes and you keep finding fish species you haven’t seen before. Unfortunately, you must go back to the surface before you run out of air. On the surface, you keep looking underwater to hopefully see the pufferfish one more time before you leave the basin.

– Luuk Wilbers